


Lies With The Sea

by gladiatorAviator



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Armin Arlert Appreciation Week, Gen, Mer!Eren, sort of mer!armin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-19 23:23:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11323860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladiatorAviator/pseuds/gladiatorAviator
Summary: A sonar ping still rings for helpDiffused among a cloud of kelpWhere mermaid kingdoms breathe.





	Lies With The Sea

“Ah, you poor thing.”

Freezing cold hands brushed Armin’s neck, shocked blue eyes meeting the dark green pupils of the creature before him. It was humanoid, but alien in the way in sinuously moved around him. From the chest up, it could have been mistaken as an almost-normal boy, had its mouth not been filled with fangs, green eyes glittering gold, the pupils shrinking as he regarded Armin, his scaly hands still brushing sharp claws around his neck. The rest of the creature’s body swam lazily around him, fins swaying gently as it continuously wrapped around and released Armin’s legs, like a snake coiling around something to investigate it. 

Armin tried to take a breath through his tank, but his oxygen was rapidly running out. Already, the pressure of the ocean seemed to collapse down on him, quashing his vision into blackness, his body refusing to obey his commands, too tired and oxygen deprived to continue. Only the beast before him kept him from sinking to the bottom of the ocean, his weight transferred to the too-smooth scales of its lower body, hands holding his shoulders so that he could still meet his eyes. 

“You're all the same,” the creature hissed, voice like knives scraping against stone. “You can't live down here, and yet you still come, hoping that your artificial lungs will carry you.” His pupils slitted closed, a ripple of color flushing down his face, bioluminescence lighting the edges of his fins in fury. “I should let the ocean take care of you. You'd make a great feast for the continental shell, crushed by your own hubris, down where the rest of your kind have fallen. Though, you would probably decompose to nothing before you touched the bottom.” 

Armin shook his head, eyes widening, adrenaline pumping through his veins. He wasn't supposed to die on this routine expedition! His team was still up on the surface, following his radio pings, gathering his data. If only that current hadn't pushed him so far away...

“Maybe not today, though,” the creature mused, loosening its grip on Armin, flashing a grin as Armin instinctively clasped back onto him. “You've been the one studying my coral, keeping what's left alive. Perhaps I should return the favor.” 

Without warning, Armin’s oxygen mask was torn from his face, his limbs held down by the creature’s tail, its hands questing down Armin’s wetsuit collar. He swallowed water in surprise, sputtering and breathing in more water, lungs filling and his vision growing dark. 

“Stop struggling,” he murmured into Armin’s ear, constricting around him. His eyes began to glow a sickly green. Claws ripped into the sides of Armin’s neck, blood following the creature’s hands like smoke. Wherever he was wrapped around Armin began to burn violently, as if he was being branded. The creature held Armin’s cheeks in his hands, scrutinizing his face, pulling Armin closer. Cold lips rammed against his in a clumsy sort of kiss, a tongue investigating the inside of Armin’s mouth, fangs getting caught in Armin’s lips and pulling away skin. What little breath Armin was holding escaped him, the last bubbles of oxygen floating out of his reach as he pulled away, his heart pumping rapidly, his lips feeling as if he had put hot coals on them. 

He could hardly feel his legs anymore, his limbs useless and leaden. Black covered the edges of his vision, the only thing he could make out was the glowing creature in front of him. It looked so otherworldly, with spines extended from its back, glowing gold on the edges of the fins where ears would be, lights dotting around his eyes, down his throat, on his chest like some sort of glyph. Perhaps it was the lack of oxygen that played such fantastic images in his eyes, or perhaps they were the final visions before death, trying to comfort his body enough to slip from this world. Surely, he would die soon. He had no more air, nothing left to inflate his lungs. He could swallow the last of the water that would end him, to get it over with quicker.

Armin inhaled, water flooding his throat, but, instead of blackness overtaking him, it cleared away from his vision. His chest rose, filled with not water, but air. _Impossible,_ Armin’s blood ran cold. _I should be dead._ Exhale. Something tickled at the sides of his neck, where claws had ripped into him, water swirling out of his mouth. A chill ran through him, his hands shaking as he slowly brought them to his neck. 

His fingers ran over four slits on the sides of his throat, the sensation causing him to flinch. _Gills?_ He snapped his head up, wild blue eyes meeting the creature’s sea green, then back down to his body. Below his navel, a sinuous tail was melded to his body, connected by sleek silver scales, undulating back and forth to keep him stationary. His stomach lurched as he brought his hands in front of him, feeling weak as scaly webbed fingers met his vision, fingers tipped with terrible talons. He could feel fins poking out where his ears should be, spines flaring out from his back. Water, continuing to enter and exit his throat without trouble, just as instinctual as breathing.

“Say ‘thank you Eren.’ I didn’t have to do this, you know,” the monster before him grinned with too many teeth. “You’re lucky I didn’t decide to add you to my collection.”

“Wh-what is--what happened? Why am I...” Armin’s thoughts escaped him in rapid-fire succession, moving too fast for him to silence them. Weakness flooded his limbs, his eyes blinking away white as dizziness scrambled his mind, nausea settling into his bones. 

Eren circled him, his tail brushing against Armin’s, eyes alight and his mouth seeming to tear apart with that awful grin. “You tasted great. Like sunlight on the waves.”

“That’s all?” Armin sputtered. “You--you threw away my tank, turn me into... into this _thing,_ and you’re too focused on violating me?”

Eren shrugged. “Would you rather be dead? Without that, you would be just another meal for scavengers.”

Armin curled in on himself, fins coiling beneath him. “No,” he said softly. “Thanks, Eren.” He scrunched his face, all but hissing out Eren’s name. 

“Don’t thank me yet,” Eren said, rising above him. Only now could Armin appreciate the sheer size of him, his eel-like tail swaying gently below him, at least ten feet long, the fins tipped with bioluminescent dots that rippled through the rainbow. He couldn’t quite make out the color of his scales; perhaps they were black, or a dark blue or green, running up his chest, dotting his arms and face. His eyes shifted through forest green to golden sun, depending on his angle. 

Armin could feel heat rising in his chest, his cheeks dusting in color. _He is sort of nice to look at._ Immediately, he reprimanded himself, grimacing. 

“You have five minutes,” Eren broke Armin’s thoughts. 

“What?”

“Five minutes to reach the surface. If you don’t...” Eren trailed off. He furrowed his brow. “This transformation doesn’t last forever, is what I’m getting at.”

Armin’s blood ran cold. “This isn’t final?”

Eren shook his head. “It will be if you don’t hurry.” He scowled, raising his shoulders and hissing a breath. “What are you waiting for? Leave!” He lunged at Armin, spines extended, black filling his eyes, his jaw unhinging, baring rows of terribly sharp teeth.

Armin lurched forward, barely dodging him. His heart pounded, adrenaline overtaking him as white-hot fear filled his nerves. He swam upward, breaths coming short and fast, struggling to figure out the movements of his new body. Swaying side to side to propel him forward felt so alien, his mind shouting at him to kick up and down, like how he was taught. 

Muscle memory couldn’t do much when the limbs didn’t exist.

He chanced a glance behind him, wincing as his eyes met his tail. He could hardly make out Eren’s figure, swaying in time with kelp beds far below. He turned his head back towards his goal. If he squinted, he could see light flickering between the waves, the keel of his team’s boat blocking out the rays above him. 

_So close!_ Armin grimaced, trying to force himself to go faster. His fins trailed below him, the length adding far too much drag for him to move quickly. The ocean around him became brighter as more sunlight was able to filter through, motes drifting lazily around him. 

If only he had more time, he could have been able to study the life around him with ease, able to investigate the way that they moved, how they lived, what they did, without having to surface and lose his subjects. Schools of fish darted around him, hoping for protection from bigger predators. He could see an octopus in the distance, carrying around some sort of debris as its home. The coral reef that was supposed to be his area rose up next to him, now that he was out of the depths below the cliffside. Anemones waved at him, starfish curling around sections of coral like wreaths. Armin nearly stopped, wanting to take in the beauty of the reef. 

His breath caught in his throat, coughing as he swallowed seawater. He hurriedly brought a hand back up to his neck, blood freezing as he ran over the area where his gills were. They were rapidly closing up, denying Armin of breath again. The swaying movement was suddenly too clumsy, his tail tearing in two, shrinking fast. He whipped his head back up, his goal so close.

Armin struggled against the water, thrashing against its grip, heart beating fast as the surface shimmered ever closer. Blackness hedged the edges of his vision, his lungs screaming for another breath, his head growing fuzzy and numb. _Just a little bit more!_ He kicked, he wrestled for purchase in the ocean, the current of the waves above pushing back on him. 

His limbs grew heavier and heavier, beginning to weigh him down. Armin blinked, bubbles escaping his throat as he began to sink. What was the use, struggling against the sea? Its arms were comforting, the pressure surrounding him warm like a heavy blanket. Perhaps... perhaps he could return to his reef, and watch the sun shimmer above him. 

Armin let himself succumb to the ocean, watching his last breath float towards the surface. His vision grew dark, lights flickering around him.

A serpentine figure rose from below, fins glowing as Eren circled around him.

**Author's Note:**

> :)


End file.
